'Mama Mia!' It's ABBAWorld

London theme park, tribute to '70s hit makers, opens today

LONDON - Is it possible to have too much ABBA? Knowing me, knowing you, the answer is no.

The spangly Swedish quartet that gave the world "Waterloo" and "Dancing Queen" has sold 400 million records since its 1970s heyday and spawned the hugely successful stage and film musical "Mamma Mia!"

And now, there's ABBAWorld, a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music, mementoes and memory-lane appeal to satisfy even the most fervent ABBA fan.

ABBAWorld's Swedish organizers promise the exhibition, which opens today, will be "a place for total interaction" with the band. The celebration began Tuesday night with a party attended by band members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anna-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad.

"It started with, 'How do we give the visitor a big hug in each room?' " said Magnus Danielsson, president of Touring Exhibitions, the company behind ABBAWorld. "This is going to be more like going to 'Mamma Mia!' than going to an exhibition. We want people to sing and dance."

ABBA's music is inescapable throughout ABBAWorld, from the exuberance of "Dancing Queen" through the melancholy of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" to the heartbreak of "The Winner Takes It All" - reminders that the band started off as two married couples and ended as two divorced ones.